WILDCATS STRIKE: Just days after cutting down the net in New Orleans following Kentucky’s NCAA championship game win, coach John Calipari landed top center recruit Nerlens Noel for next season. Photo: Getty Images

Say what you will about Kentucky coach John Calipari.

Say he comes across as a used-car salesman. Say he considers the NCAA rulebook optional reading. Say he goes to Mass everyday only to pray he lands the nation’s best recruiting class.

You can harbor those cynical beliefs, but you must also say this: John Calipari has changed the face of college basketball. He has proved the most talented group of freshmen and sophomores can beat the very good juniors and seniors who stay and develop at other schools.

Whether or not that’s good for college basketball is an argument for another day.

What is not up for debate is this: Calipari proved you can get young players, whose pupils are dilated with the NBA logo, to subjugate their games for the good of the team.

College basketball is supposed to be about the coaches, the NBA about the players. Not in Cal’s world.

He immediately takes pressure off his young players by telling them that since they are expected to win, if they fall short it’s his fault — he didn’t get them to buy in, he didn’t maximize their talent, he didn’t have the right gameplan.

“I think that Cal is probably the best salesman that our sport knows,’’ Kansas coach Bill Self said. “He does an unbelievable job of promoting Kentucky basketball through a variety of means. He’s kind of changed recruiting in some ways for the most part through social media, a lot of different ways.’’

Ah, yes, recruiting — the lifeblood of every program.

On the night of April 2, after he led Kentucky to the national championship over Kansas, Cal sounded like Fred the Baker in those Dunkin’ Donuts commercials (“Time to Make the Donuts”) when discussing his plans.

“Right now I’m going to have two days, and then I’ve got to go out recruiting,’’ he said.

And Cal did what he does best.

With just a couple of elite recruits still uncommitted, Calipari again landed the nation’s best recruiting class. He made sure of that when center Nerlens Noel, the second-ranked recruit in the nation, recently chose the reigning champion Wildcats over Georgetown and Syracuse.

Noel will step into the shot-blocking role occupied by Anthony Davis, who is expected to announce this month he is going to the NBA. Power forward Alex Poythress (No. 8 recruit) eases the losses of forwards Terrence Jones and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Shooting guard Archie Goodwin (No. 14) replace Doron Lamb of Queens.

Certainly, some of the rich got richer. Indiana, now back on track under coach Tom Crean, has the nation’s fifth-best class. North Carolina has the No. 9 class, followed by Kansas. Michigan State got in at 13th.

But what will make the 2012-13 season riveting is the revival of some proud programs that have taken lumps and the future of some elite programs that are at a crossroads.

UCLA will always have the name and it’s hard to imagine a coach that went to three Final Fours being on the hot seat, but that’s exactly where Ben Howland finds himself. The Bruins failed to make the NCAA Tournament this past season, and Howland had to toss talented but petulant forward Reeves Nelson.

Howland recruited the nation’s third-best class. He already had beaten out St. John’s and Seton Hall for point guard Kyle Anderson (No. 3), and he recently beat out Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and UNLV for the nation’s No. 1 recruit — forward Shabazz Muhammad. The Bruins must make it to the second weekend of next year’s tournament or the shadow of John Wooden will eclipse Howland.

Arizona could be next season’s Kentucky. Sean Miller has made it clear he won’t tolerate nonsense. Last year’s star recruit, point guard Josiah Turner, recently announced he is transferring. Lamont “Momo” Jones left the year before. Miller, with a lot of help from city legend Book Richardson, brought in the nation’s No. 2 class with four top-50 recruits led by center Kaleb Tarczewski (No. 9). Between ’Zona and UCLA, the West may rise.

Meanwhile, UConn might fall. Center Andre Drummond announced he was leaving for the NBA, joining shooting guard Jeremy Lamb. Forward Alex Oriakhi will transfer to Missouri, but Connecticut did get Christ the King star Omar Calhoun.

St. John’s did not make the splash it made in Steve Lavin’s first season, but the incoming class is respectable. He got point guard Jamal Branch, a transfer from Texas A&M, and got power forward JaKarr Sampson to recommit after not meeting academic requirements last year.

The key for St. John’s, which lost freshman Moe Harkless to the NBA, is to secure 6-foot-8 shot blocker Christopher Obekpa of Long Island, who also likes Cincinnati, where assistant coach Darren Savino is working hard to add Obekpa to the line of Lance Stephenson and Sean Kilpatrick.

North Carolina State, under Mike Gottlieb, beat Roy Williams in the state by landing Rodney Purvis (No. 12) and T.J. Warren of Raleigh. The Wolfpack’s Sweet 16 run in the NCAA Tournament could help the ACC shed its skin of being a league consisting of Duke, North Carolina and 10 other schools.

Ed Cooley, the coolest coach in the Big East, has Providence poised to make a jump into the upper tier of the league. Shooting guard Ricardo Ledo (No. 6) is a stud, and point guard Kris Brown (16) has a game that’s easy to love.

Houston is gearing up for its entry in to the Big East with nation’s No. 14 class including shooting guard Danuel House (No. 20) and power forward Chicken Knowles (No. 54). The Cougars have great tradition dating back to the Hakeem Olajuwon days and could be a force.

Of course, all of these schools need to do what only Calipari has been able to do thus far: Get a great freshman class to play together.